Pet Peeve rants.

[Gared]

I remember doing the Pledge every day in elementary school, and I remember doing it at least occasionally in junior high, but for the life of me I can't remember if we ever did it in high school. The only time we ever played the national anthem was at the start of sports events, when the band would play it, but there was never a singer trying to sing along with the band, and I think the only sports we did that for were football and boys' and girls' basketball, not volleyball, baseball, or softball (because we didn't have bands to play at those sports). I'm pretty sure we never used the anthem during school-wide assemblies, regardless the topic of or reason for the assembly.

I don't know. The Pledge of Allegiance has more than its fair share of drama attached to it, and not just because of the "under God" portion, but also because of the fact that you're pledging allegiance to a flag. There are some people (like my wife) who absolutely refuse to say the Pledge because they can't (or won't) fathom why anyone should pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. And then there are people (like myself) who are less literal, and also have a bit more understanding of history and a better feeling for just how important the flag itself (both as a piece of cloth and as a symbol of America) is and has been to prisoners of war, as described by Joseph Moser in his book "A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald"; who understand that the reason we say "I pledge allegiance to the Flag..." is because it's a heck of a lot simpler than saying "I pledge allegiance to the civil and moral ideals presented by the memories of the men and women who have fought and died to win the freedoms that we as Americans all share..."

Huh. What do you know. This is a pet peeve of mine too.

 

[Chad Sexington]

I remember doing the Pledge every day in elementary school, and I remember doing it at least occasionally in junior high, but for the life of me I can't remember if we ever did it in high school. The only time we ever played the national anthem was at the start of sports events, when the band would play it, but there was never a singer trying to sing along with the band, and I think the only sports we did that for were football and boys' and girls' basketball, not volleyball, baseball, or softball (because we didn't have bands to play at those sports). I'm pretty sure we never used the anthem during school-wide assemblies, regardless the topic of or reason for the assembly.

I don't know. The Pledge of Allegiance has more than its fair share of drama attached to it, and not just because of the "under God" portion, but also because of the fact that you're pledging allegiance to a flag. There are some people (like my wife) who absolutely refuse to say the Pledge because they can't (or won't) fathom why anyone should pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. And then there are people (like myself) who are less literal, and also have a bit more understanding of history and a better feeling for just how important the flag itself (both as a piece of cloth and as a symbol of America) is and has been to prisoners of war, as described by Joseph Moser in his book "A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald"; who understand that the reason we say "I pledge allegiance to the Flag..." is because it's a heck of a lot simpler than saying "I pledge allegiance to the civil and moral ideals presented by the memories of the men and women who have fought and died to win the freedoms that we as Americans all share..."

Huh. What do you know. This is a pet peeve of mine too.

I'm Canadian, so I'm ignorant of this: are you penalised in schools for refusing to say the Pledge? I think I would also refuse, although not for your wife's reasons.

 

[Bones]

Is every school day started with the pledge of allegiance? Do Americans play the national anthem daily in schools too?

yes because 'MURICA!

 

[LittleKagsin]

Is every school day started with the pledge of allegiance? Do Americans play the national anthem daily in schools too?

No. Not that I know of. We used to recite the pledge everyday in elementary school, but that stopped around 5th grade. And I've never heard the national anthem just be played in the morning or something. If it was played it was at the Veteran's assembly and maybe at a sporting event.

But I never remember doing the pledge in high school. And, maybe, it depends on the school.

 

[Tress]

I'm Canadian, so I'm ignorant of this: are you penalized in schools for refusing to say the Pledge? I think I would also refuse, although not for your wife's reasons.

It's technically illegal to punish any student for not reciting the pledge. I've seen some students, and even a few teachers, yell at students for refusing to do the pledge though. It happens, even though it shouldn't.

 

[Chad Sexington]

It's technically illegal to punish any student for not reciting the pledge. I've seen some students, and even a few teachers, yell at students for refusing to do the pledge though. It happens, even though it shouldn't.

That makes sense. Both parts of it, sadly

 

[Cajungal]

We've had some parents complain about doing the pledge every morning. The way we handle that is to allow the student to silently sit or stand. They're free not to say it as long as they don't disturb other students during the recitation.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

Is every school day started with the pledge of allegiance? Do Americans play the national anthem daily in schools too?

At my son's school they recite the pledge and sing the national anthem daily unless it's raining too hard for them to be out in the courtyard. But they are a private school and can do pretty much what they want.

 

[Terrik]

yes because 'MURICA!

It's quite common all over the world. Japanese do it, Koreans at the Korean school I worked at did it every day. Chinese do it every day do. In fact, I'd wager that patriotic displays for your individual national are applauded and valued more than looked down upon and scorned as seems to be the trend in the US.

 

[bhamv3]

Japanese do it, Koreans at the Korean school I worked at did it every day. Chinese do it every day do.

 

[Gared]

You know my other pet peeve? DUI apologists. The people who always show up in the comments section (I know, I know, don't read the comments) of news stories where some drunk and/or high driver has killed someone and talk about how the DUI driver shouldn't be punished too harshly, because they'll learn a valuable lesson from it, and it wasn't intentional. First, it fucking is intentional if you know you've been drinking or doing drugs and you voluntarily get in your car and drive somewhere. No one forced you to drive, and if they did, we wouldn't be talking about a DUI driver, we'd be talking about a car jacking. Second, we have people who don't get seriously jail time until their 5th or 6th or more time of not just driving altered, but actually being caught driving altered, and even then they're only harshly punished if they managed to kill or seriously injure someone else. So no, they're not going to fucking "learn a valuable lesson."

We had a DUI accident just 9 days ago where the 29ish year old uncle loaded his 9 year old nephew and 8 year old niece in his car to drive them to their grandmother's house after a family reunion where he'd apparently been drinking and smoking pot. He took an exit off the highway, rolled his car, the nephew was ejected, and died the following day after being taken off of life support by his family. The apologists showed up almost immediately. "Oh, don't punish the poor driver. He'll learn his lesson from having killed his nephew, and he won't do this again."

So what happens today? 50 or 60 year old fucking little league coach is driving drunk and/or high and slams into 4 pedestrians in an intersection in a residential neighborhood, killing two of them and sending the other two (including a two week old baby) to the hospital in critical condition with severe head injuries. Sure, it's not the same guy, but it's only going to be a matter of time before some jackass pops up in the comments talking about how, since the drunk is a little league coach, and a child was injured, he's going to feel sooooooo bad about what he did that he'll never do it again.

We need to find some actual form of a deterrent to get it into people's fucking heads that it's not OK to drive drunk. Taking their license away isn't going to do it, people drive without a license all the time. Same with taking away their ability to get insurance, people drive without that all the time too. Interlock devices? That only really helps if the person who's been given the device actually really wants to stop driving drunk but is a hardcore alcoholic with poor decision making skills. It's not going to stop partiers from drinking and driving and either a) getting someone else to blow in the device or b) driving someone else' car home. And then we've got all of the damn DUI lawyers always running ads about how they can get you out of the $5k fine or get you out of any jail time you might get for being pulled over while driving drunk. How the fuck is that helping us?![DOUBLEPOST=1364264959][/DOUBLEPOST]

I'm Canadian, so I'm ignorant of this: are you penalised in schools for refusing to say the Pledge? I think I would also refuse, although not for your wife's reasons.

We weren't punished in any of our schools, unless we were being disruptive of the rest of the class.

Edit: And then we weren't being punished for not saying the pledge, we were being punished for being disruptive little shit heads. Because mostly we were unruly, disruptive little shit heads, and I have no idea how our teachers put up with us.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

People who think that because I am a stay-at-home mom that I am lazy or lack ambition to do anything else with my life. You know, I don't work or anything like that.

Other stay-at-home moms who find out I am taking college courses, get insecure over it, then act like I'm the one who holds it over their heads. I've lost "friends" this way more than once.

When people find out I'm taking classes online and give me a smug attitude because everyone knows I'm not actually doing college work and I'll get a worthless degree. This usually comes in the form of "Oh...*smirk*".

 

[Chad Sexington]

People who think that because I am a stay-at-home mom that I am lazy or lack ambition to do anything else with my life. You know, I don't work or anything like that.

Other stay-at-home moms who find out I am taking college courses, get insecure over it, then act like I'm the one who holds it over their heads. I've lost "friends" this way more than once.

When people find out I'm taking classes online and give me a smug attitude because everyone knows I'm not actually doing college work and I'll get a worthless degree. This usually comes in the form of "Oh...*smirk*".

I tried to combine all the possible criticisms into one: "Oh you useless stay-at-home moms, with your fancy college degrees, thinking you're too good for us, while being worthless." The level of cognitive dissonance made me sad.

 

[Bowielee]

People who think that because I am a stay-at-home mom that I am lazy or lack ambition to do anything else with my life. You know, I don't work or anything like that.

Other stay-at-home moms who find out I am taking college courses, get insecure over it, then act like I'm the one who holds it over their heads. I've lost "friends" this way more than once.

When people find out I'm taking classes online and give me a smug attitude because everyone knows I'm not actually doing college work and I'll get a worthless degree. This usually comes in the form of "Oh...*smirk*".

My mother got her accounting degree online. She's been happy with it. Unfortunately, she doesn't plan to move and lives in a little town in the middle of nowhere where the degree is useless for anything even if it were from Harvard. However, making money wasn't really her goal. It was more about proving that she could do it.

She dropped out of school to marry my dad and we're so similar, I'm pretty sure that she hated having to be stuck there her whole life.

 

[fade]

My pet peeve is everything.

 

[Ravenpoe]

My school still started every morning with a prayer.

All the way through highschool.

Welcome to Dixie County.

 

[fade]

Serious pet peeve: mathematical texts that use the phrases "it is clear" or "clearly". Of course it's clear to you. You're the author. It may very well not be clear. My grad students commonly complained about this phrase, too. I think its sole purpose is to infuriate the reader.

 

[Gared]

Serious pet peeve: mathematical texts that use the phrases "it is clear" or "clearly". Of course it's clear to you. You're the author. It may very well not be clear. My grad students commonly complained about this phrase, too. I think its sole purpose is to infuriate the reader.

Nah, its purpose is much baser than that - to make the author feel intellectually superior.

 

[Gared]

I suppose it depends on the type of text. Every time I've run into it, the impression I've gotten from the text is "I am the superior intellect, and this is clear to me. If it isn't clear to you, it's because you're a moron."

Extra points for reading that in Jeremy Clarkson's voice.

 

[Tress]

New pet peeve: students who want to argue semantics to get out of (a well-deserved) bad grade.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

My mother got her accounting degree online. She's been happy with it. Unfortunately, she doesn't plan to move and lives in a little town in the middle of nowhere where the degree is useless for anything even if it were from Harvard. However, making money wasn't really her goal. It was more about proving that she could do it.

Being able to take classes online makes my life so much easier. Especially when my husband is deployed. My plan is to finish my bachelors online, but go to a local college for my masters. By that time both kids will be in school full-time, my husband could be retired from the Navy, and that will allow me to have a more set schedule.

 

[Gared]

New pet peeve: Rating services like Yelp. Not because of all of the "pay for play" scandals that keep hitting Yelp, but because there's absolutely no way to know whether the person who wrote any specific review was a total moron or not, unless they completely misspell several words in their review. For instance, I was reading through the "Trip Advisor" reviews for a hotel in Newport, OR; and it sounded like the majority of the reviewers were expecting Waldorf Astoria or Ritz Carlton level amenities. It's a Travelodge Roadside Motel for crying out loud, people! Of course the continental breakfast is going to be cold cereal and donuts! And then there was the person who was really upset because the rooms were smaller than they were proytered in pictures.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

I completely distrust Yelp at this point. Every time I have used it to try to find good Chinese food here on Oahu I have been led to believe places are "so ONO!!!!!" when they are mediocre or worse. And if people don't like the restaurant/chef/server then they say they found a bug in their food.

 

[Gared]

I completely distrust Yelp at this point. Every time I have used it to try to find good Chinese food here on Oahu I have been led to believe places are "so ONO!!!!!" when they are mediocre or worse. And if people don't like the restaurant/chef/server then they say they found a bug in their food.

Oh yeah, the only reason I ever use Yelp at all is to see what restaurants are available around me. I really don't trust the reviews themselves anymore.

 

[blotsfan]

New pet peeve: students who want to argue semantics to get out of (a well-deserved) bad grade.

I had a teacher that did what I always thought was the best way to handle this (well, not for a student). If you had any issues with a grade, you could talk to him and explain your issues. He would then regrade it, taking what you said into account, but also look for every nit-picky thing you can lose points on. It could help your grade, but you were a lot more likely to end up with a worse one.

 

[Tress]

New pet peeve: Rating services like Yelp. Not because of all of the "pay for play" scandals that keep hitting Yelp, but because there's absolutely no way to know whether the person who wrote any specific review was a total moron or not, unless they completely misspell several words in their review. For instance, I was reading through the "Trip Advisor" reviews for a hotel in Newport, OR; and it sounded like the majority of the reviewers were expecting Waldorf Astoria or Ritz Carlton level amenities. It's a Travelodge Roadside Motel for crying out loud, people! Of course the continental breakfast is going to be cold cereal and donuts! And then there was the person who was really upset because the rooms were smaller than they were proytered in pictures.

The following is a real review of an automotive repair place near me. For the record, this place has a high score overall and I've always been treated well.

First of all Larry's hella rude, he makes you feel stupid when he talks to you. He belittles you. What's your problem bro? You got a beef with me you want to settle?

****HERE"S THE MAIN PROBLEM***: Larry did an inspection on our car and missed hella issues. Our car broke down soon after it had "passed" the inspection. What did even I pay you for bro?

Straighten up bro. You're gonna lose customers hella fast.

 

[figmentPez]

New pet peeve: Rating services like Yelp.

I'm torn, because I've found some really good restaurants through Yelp, but reviews are hard to figure out.

On a tangent, I hate reviews on AllRecipes.com , so many people posting them are either stupid or evil. The biggest problem is giving a five star review on a recipe but based on major changes to it. Another problem is people who have no clue what they hell they're talking about. Example quote "Made the recipe as is... I also did not add any almond extract." That is not as is. If you did not add something, then you changed the recipe.

 

[GasBandit]

Is every school day started with the pledge of allegiance? Do Americans play the national anthem daily in schools too?

I can't speak for today, but when I was in school, we had to recite the pledge together at the start of the day. They taught it to us so early we barely knew what we were saying - it was more phonetic rote memorization and recitation than an actual knowing pledge.

"I plejaleejens
To the flag
of the united states of america
Antoo the reap uglic forwichit stands
One nashin undergod
indivisible (or more often, invisible, individual, in dirigible)
with libber tian justice for all."

I'm patriotic and all that, but the childhood forced recitation of the pledge of allegiance always struck me as nefarious - like making a toddler sign a binding contract.

And while the school itself can't punish a student that refuses, if I remember correctly, the childhood tendency to cruelly attack anything different from the group usually takes care of that.

 

[Chad Sexington]

I'm torn, because I've found some really good restaurants through Yelp, but reviews are hard to figure out.

On a tangent, I hate reviews on AllRecipes.com , so many people posting them are either stupid or evil. The biggest problem is giving a five star review on a recipe but based on major changes to it. Another problem is people who have no clue what they hell they're talking about. Example quote "Made the recipe as is... I also did not add any almond extract." That is not as is. If you did not add something, then you changed the recipe.

Someone I follow on Twitter suggested there should be a tumblr dedicated to this second habit.

"1 star out of 5: Made the cake, but didn't have flour. Substituted with salt. IT WAS TERRIBLE. WILL NOT MAKE AGAIN."

 

[Gared]

I'm torn, because I've found some really good restaurants through Yelp, but reviews are hard to figure out.

On a tangent, I hate reviews on AllRecipes.com , so many people posting them are either stupid or evil. The biggest problem is giving a five star review on a recipe but based on major changes to it. Another problem is people who have no clue what they hell they're talking about. Example quote "Made the recipe as is... I also did not add any almond extract." That is not as is. If you did not add something, then you changed the recipe.

Yeah, I used to run into that all the time on AllRecipes.com and FoodNetwork.com (back when the latter was a place about food, instead of a place about competitions loosely based on food). It was extremely annoying when I would look a recipe for something, see three different options for recipes (from three different chefs), all rated the same, but the comments would be completely different recipes, like someone would give Emeril 5 stars for a gnocchi recipe, but in their comment they'd talk about how horrible his recipe was and how many changes they had to make for it to be palatable. And then you'd run into people giving recipes from lesser known chefs (or hated chefs, like Rachel Ray), talking about how awesome the food was based on an exact following of the recipe, but giving it 1 or 2 stars.

 

[Chad Sexington]

Man now I just want to go make up some of these and post them on recipe sites.
"Followed directions closely, but chose to leave the chicken raw (as I don't like hot dinners). Everyone got food poisoning. Would not make again."
"We used beans in molasses instead of maple syrup. For some reason, there was no sweetness as described above. YMMV, would not make again."[DOUBLEPOST=1364332585][/DOUBLEPOST]"NOTE: RECIPE DOES NOT MENTION SUBSTITUTING LARD FOR BUTTER WILL RUIN THE PANCAKES 1/5 WOULD NOT MAKE AGAIN."

 

[Null]

I can't speak for today, but when I was in school, we had to recite the pledge together at the start of the day. They taught it to us so early we barely knew what we were saying - it was more phonetic rote memorization and recitation than an actual knowing pledge.

"I plejaleejens
To the flag
of the united states of america
Antoo the reap uglic forwichit stands
One nashin undergod
indivisible (or more often, invisible, individual, in dirigible)
with libber tian justice for all."

I'm patriotic and all that, but the childhood forced recitation of the pledge of allegiance always struck me as nefarious - like making a toddler sign a binding contract.

And while the school itself can't punish a student that refuses, if I remember correctly, the childhood tendency to cruelly attack anything different from the group usually takes care of that.

"I dredge a grievance,
to Queen Fragg,
in her wild state of hysteria.
And Drew the repugnant, whore itchy sands,
one notion, yonder glob,
with misery and busted for all."

Did it make sense? No, but it sure amused me more than saying it right.

 

[GasBandit]

"I dredge a grievance,
to Queen Fragg,
in her wild state of hysteria.
And Drew the repugnant, whore itchy sands,
one notion, yonder glob,
with misery and busted for all."

Did it make sense? No, but it sure amused me more than saying it right.

Heh, wasn't lines 2 and 3 from a calvin and hobbes comic?

 

[Null]

Heh, wasn't lines 2 and 3 from a calvin and hobbes comic?

Probably, though I think at the time I read more garfield than calvin & hobbes (I was in grade school).

 

[WasabiPoptart]

"Remember when we were kids and couldn't wait to grow up? What the hell were we thinking?"